Fast forward now to 1971. I'd made up my mind about the career I wanted to pursue. On a cold, brisk morning at Sydney's  Mascot Airport ( the domestic terminal) I  was descending the steps of an Ansett Airlines of Australia Boeing 727, my hair and long purple paisley print 1970s scarf blowing wildly about in the stiff breeze. I was in Sydney for a holiday with some relatives and I remember wearing a purple velvet mini dress and white knee high boots, which were very trendy at the time.  I thought I was pretty 'groovy;' typical twenty year-old thinking. Does anyone remember the word 'groovy?' It was one of the buzz-words of the time and if you watched the Brady Bunch, almost every second word was 'groovy.'

Anyhow, there I was at Sydney airport. I may have literally come down to earth, but my head was well and truly back in the clouds, imagining myself in the Ansett uniform, doing the cabin demo and practising saying: Would you like tea or coffee?  I thought I would be just perfect for this job and at that moment I realised I wanted it like nothing else.

Fast forward again, this time to 1973, wave your magic wand and hey presto, there I was in the uniform of Ansett Airlines of South Australia, which was a subsidiary company of Ansett. Also operating at the time were: Ansett Airlines of New South Wales, and McRobertson Miller airlines in Western Australia. I had decided to join the smaller subsidiary company to make sure I suppose that I enjoyed flying as a job. I was pretty sure I would, but joining the larger mainline company would have meant an upheaval to Melbourne for training and then to goodness knows where in Australia. I put joining the 'big' company on the back-burner for the time being.

One advantage with ASA was that the crew were able to be back in Adelaide, our base, every night, except for unpredictability of weather or a breakdown, which was a possibility you always had to be prepared for. At the time I was still living at home with my Mum, Dad and sister, so for now, that situation suited me. 

My ASA uniform was a lovely raspberry colour, which suited my dark hair, but I did have a funny little hat with a sort of tassel in the middle of the crown. My Mum called it my monkey-hat. Gee, thanks, Mum. We also had to wear gloves for boarding passengers and disembarkation. How times have changed. Hat and gloves sounds so very Sixties.

A few week before joining ASA, I took a two-week coach tour of New Zealand. This had been a trip I was scheduled to do about a month later on, but because of my acceptance with the airlines, my travel agent did some quick fancy foot-work and found me an earlier tour. This was my very first overseas trip and guess what? I flew in a Qantas Boeing 707, just like the one I'd seen years before at Kingsford Smith. No passports were required for New Zealand at the time if you were Australian. Hard to believe now, isn't it? I discovered the joy of Duty-free shopping and was over-awed at the array of glamorous, shiny goods on offer. I remember well purchasing a French perfume; Princesse d'Albret.  I still have the empty bottle and amazingly it has retained a haunting smell of the original contents. The perfume doesn't seem to have deteriorated much with age.  I don't know whether they make them like that any more. I also bought two silky long-sleeved tops. I had a rip-roaring time on both the South and North Islands, revelling in the astounding scenery, the company of some other young people on the tour and discovering New Zealand ice-cream, as well as spending up the the shops of almost every town I visited.

The day after my return, I began my training with Ansett Airlines of South Australia. On my first day I caught a suburban bus to the airport from the city and alighted just beside the West Beach Airport Gates. I then walked into the terminal building in my pale blue suede shoes (Thank goodness it wasn't raining), to match my pale blue angora dress, and was quite surprised at the distance, which seemed so quick when in a car. I wasn't driving at that stage. I also hadn't realised that  I could have hopped on an Ansett airport bus, which departed from the Ansett office situated on North Terrace. I wasn't yet a seasoned or savvy traveller, but definitely young, enthusiastic and more than a little naive.

The stories that follow are from those exhausting, happy, frustrating, turbulent; in more ways than one, days. Although there will be many 'hostess' stories, I also want to portray travel as it was in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as re-visit attitudes in society, fashions (fun and fabulous) and music (also fun and fabulous), when the world in my opinion was a bit more peaceful and travel was simpler and more pleasant as a result.

 A short while ago, I notified my followers that, as 'Here, There and Everywhere' is now going to be published by a South Australian publisher, I'm required to 'unpublish' most of the chapters. Maybe the notification will not have reached you, if you were not necessarily following, but enjoying reading. I value all of your reads, votes and comments and I want to thank you all. I'll let you know at a later date when the book will be available in hard copy/Kindle. I've left the first two chapters up for anyone who wants to see what HT&E is about and some photo chapters at the end. Kind regards, LjBunyipdoley. 

PS: I have been remiss for not telling you that 'Here,There and Everywhere' is available to purchase from Amazon in either a hard copy or Ebook version. Apologies, Lj.

There are still some photos you can see in the last few chapters, which may make you want to travel when the Covid19 virus has disappeared from our lives.